What are the Pitfalls of Scaling Content?

Scaling content marketing is a topic discussed extensively on SEJ , yet it remains one of the biggest issues for marketers or brands wanting to invest heavily in this valuable channel. You might be surprised to learn that your issue with scaling content marketing is part of a larger problem known as diseconomies of scale.

This essentially means the increased volume designed to improve production ROI has actually reached a point where it’s become less efficient, causing the quality or ROI to suffer. Fortunately, there are surefire ways to scale quality content without facing the common pitfalls found in the infographic below.

Nail Your Production Process

A critical part of the content marketing process is managing the production. This is no easy feat, and for most companies whose core competency is not content production, it makes more sense to find a production partner that specializes in content creation. If you don’t decide to hire a production company to scale content, then here are some quick ways to help nail your production process.

Create and Document a Strategy: Before you ever begin hiring creatives, you need to create an execution strategy and outline the goals, objectives, and expectations into a tangible document.

Produce a Style Guide: With that overarching strategy in mind, you should produce individual style guides for each type of content. The style guide should reflect your brand voice, style requirements, linking, and other granular elements of that particular type of content (article, product description, infographic, etc.).

Recruit Experts: With the documents in hand, you can now start looking for creatives. Scour blogs and other open creative platforms to find experts in your industry. Reach out and gauge their interest in working with you.

Vet All Creatives: Regardless of whether you recruit a creative, or they apply for the position, do your due diligence on the front-end to avoid issues down the road. Ask for examples and references, and do a test piece of content. These steps will help you ensure your creative is qualified and your production process sound.

Adapt: No matter how smoothly the initial process goes, it will always change. Don’t get stuck in your process, be proactive and willing to make adjustments.

Sweat the Small Stuff

Content is naturally one of the most important parts of your content marketing strategy. Thus, one of the biggest mistakes you can make when scaling is not proofreading or editing your content before publishing it. As you produce more, it can be harder and harder to check every piece of content, but that doesn’t mean you should publish it without an internal review.

Fifty-nine percent of potential customers said they would not use a company that has poor grammar on its website. If you wouldn’t go into an important business meeting without first checking yourself in a mirror, then you should also protect your company’s image by checking content before it’s published.

Don’t Undervalue Creativity

One of the more frustrating pitfalls that comes with content at scale is a lack of creativity. Have you ever landed on a company blog only to find that the last five pieces of content published are all covering the same topic? When you ramp up content production, it can be tough to create unique and compelling topics.

Great ideation is the catalyst of great content. Use ideation tools, crowd source across your employees, or hire professionals, but whatever you do, don’t undervalue creativity when scaling content.